So I finally lost it.

A while ago I posted a big-ass rant about one of my bands and how unhappy I was with their lack of professionalism. I mentioned I was going to bail on them and focus on my primary project.

Well, as luck would have it, my primary band decided to split up after a lack of interest from the other members. No hard feelings - they just fell out of love with the project. After testing the waters a bit online and looking for another band to join (and coming up short) I decided to stick with my second band - the one I had a bitch about - just to keep the creative juices flowing and playing gigs.

We recorded a second string of demos to unfavourable results. The overall sound was just plain bad and there were timing issues all over the place (mostly because the drummer insisted he not play to a click track). But at the end of the day, the demo serves as a decent pre-production tool to work with for any proper recordings we do in future. I took it for what it was - something for OUR reference.

The drummer disagreed. He insists he wants to show the world the demos as if they were a final product. He did the same thing with our first run of demo recordings last year despite the guitarist and my initial hesitation. Eventually, the guitarist caved and decided to share the demos too. But those recordings sounded a lot better than these new ones...by a mile.
I made my stance felt in regards to these demos but the drummer is adamant he wants 100% polished recordings to show his friends and family. This means he wants me and the guitarist to return to the studio and re-record our parts "properly" and get it mixed right. But what about his parts? Listening to the recordings, there are several parts in several songs where his drumming skips a beat or his timing throws the rest of the song off. We raised this with him after he told us to re-record our parts. His immediate response was "There's nothing wrong with my drumming". His second response was "Don't try to blame me for your **** playing". His THIRD response was "Just practice your **** for once and re-record the damn songs".

Needless to say, I didn't stand for it at all. I called him up there and then and flipped my lid. Fair enough I made my share of mistakes on the recordings - as anyone would in a live recording. But this guy has the nerve to get on his high horse and claim his playing is perfect? And DEMAND that I and the guitarist alone re-record our parts? All so he can show-off to his friends? I simply told him that if he wants the bass re-recorded, he can do it himself and hung up on him.

So here I am, entering the new year with no band and no gigs lines up. And to be honest, after the months of crap I went through with this band, I actually feel relieved. I've never left a band on bad terms but these guys genuinely made me dread playing music - be it for professional reasons or social reasons.

Its funny because I always hear about how drummers are arrogant and difficult people to work with. I never believed it as every drummer I worked with prior to this guy has been fantastic lol.

I will not waste my time recording demos for family and friends! In addition, any recordings should be done along with a producer. Someone who can give direction and advice. Self produced recordings are doomed to be subpar unless you know what you're doing.

In the last couple of bands I've been with, I've made live, stereo recordings of every gig we've played and even some rehearsals just so any member who wants to share with friends and family can make them freely available.

Sure, they're full of mistakes and they lack any kind of professional polish but my bands are all strictly live bands and we don't want to waste time screwing around with "demos".

I know that there are many bands who want to produce studio recordings but, IMO, the way most bands use "demos" is just a waste of time and won't really help them achieve their goal.

I agree with either a producer, or someone independant of the band to give objective opinions on the recording and mix down.
When producing your own music, a lot of what you hear is already etched into your brain, so hear things that aren't in the recording (like the excellent drumming).